Periphery – Ragnarok – Classic Song Waiting to Be Discovered

Djent. Who comes up with these terms for music? Do people really need music to be labelled and categorised to like it. Why can’t music just be music? It’s not like we are walking through super market isles with a list of what to get.

Seriously I grew up on 80’s hard rock / metal bands. That doesn’t mean I didn’t like glam rock, thrash metal, pop rock, pop, death metal, technical metal, progressive metal (yawn as more labels come to mind)etc… See how ridiculous it is. The problem is when a niche explodes, it becomes mainstream and like it or not its part of the mainstream music machine. Does anyone refer to Pearl Jam or Alice In Chains as grunge bands or Limp Bizkit as NuMetal anymore? No they are just bands releasing music and playing shows.

Coming back to Djent and Periphery. I saw these guys live at the Annandale Hotel in Feb 2013, as a sideshow they did from the Soundwave tour. They were good. Very good. Technical and melodic. Technical and aggressive. Technical and progressive. Technical and rocking. Technical and serene. Technical and mechanical. It was a pleasure to be there. To me it is music. I don’t see it as a Djent movement. I don’t see it as a niche where only an elite group of fans can participate because they all like Djent style bands and everything else out there is crap. Its music, that encompasses all the terms I mentioned.

Periphery was formed in 2005 by guitarist Misha Mansoor. It wasn’t until 2010 they released their debut album. Are people prepared to put in 5 years of service these days without making a dime from music and working a full time job to support the dream of being a musician?

Misha got traction by connecting. He had a Soundclick account that he regularly updated with riffs and songs. He went on to forums that mattered. He didn’t spam everyone. He went after the people that had a similar interest in the style of music he was into. In this case, it was the Meshuggah, Dream Theater, John Petrucci and Seven String forums. He met other musicians like this? Those other musicians would end up as members in Periphery. So from just Misha and his computer originally, now it is a band of six musicians. Vocals are provided by the gifted Spencer Sotelo. Where did he come from? In the first two minutes you think he’s singing from the depths of hell and then the angelic melodic voice carries the outro of the song.

Ragnarok. The end of the world in Norse mythology by submersion of the world in water. Afterward, the world will resurface anew and the world will be repopulated by two human survivors. Does this sound familiar to all the Christian’s out there? I will be clear from the outset, I am not a fan of screaming guttural vocals. I appreciate what they bring to a song and what they try to add to the message/context of a song however I don’t really like them. However, I like how the music is technically aggressive from the outset but to me this song explodes from the 2.20 minute mark to about 4.30. I remember playing this song to people that like more of a commercial sound. They were looking at the ceiling and then from the 2.20 minute mark they are paying attention. Is this the same band they ask me. I answer yes it is.

Somewhere in time…Off in the distance we can see, shining, clear, our demise to be.We’re not listening to ourselves.

The end of the world. We can see it, but we failed to stop it. Allowing Corporations to influence legislation so that it protects their bottom lines and takes away from our liberties. We need to stop it. Allowing politicians to serve the lobby groups instead of the people that voted them in. We need to stop it. Allowing our privacy to be stored and traded on hearsay evidence. We need to stop it. Experience the end of the world with Periphery. Be amazed. For the ones that don’t like the death metal vocals, hang in there until the two minute mark.